TIRUMALA:In the morning session, on the fifth day of the ongoing Salakatla Brahmotsavams, Lord Venkateswara dressed up as ‘Mohini Avatar’ was taken in a huge procession, along with Sri Krishna in an ivory palanquin.
The Lord enthralled His devotees by appearing in the form of celestial beauty ‘Mohini’ (female costumes) - an adorable form of supernaturally beautiful enchantress.
He enlightened His devotees by not falling prey to worldly desires and come out of ‘Maya’ by appearing as Mohini, besides sending a message that the entire universe was a creation of his ‘Maya’ and to overcome the same, everyone should worship Him.
As legends put it, the appearance as bejewelled and charming Mohini throws the demons (asuras) in confusion and wins the celestial battle in favour of the devas. The objective of the Mohini avatar is to indicate that the entire universe is spellbound under the ‘Mystic Mohini’ and that the Lord of Tirumala is the king pin and key architect of this high drama in the universe.
At the same time, Lord Venkateswara appeared as Sri Krishna before His countless devotees on a ‘pallaki’ (palanquin) made of ivory and rosewood, presented to the temple by the erstwhile Maharaja of Mysore. It was a pleasant surprise to see the presiding deity decked up as ‘Mohini’ and riding a bright white palanquin made of silver and ivory.
TTD Trust Board chairman Ch Krishnamurthy, executive officer D Sambasiva Rao, joint EO KS Sreenivasa Raju, CV&SO Nagendra Kumar, Board members Suchithra Ella, Hariprasad, Raghavendra Rao, AV Ramana, Vaidyanathan Krishnamurthy, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah and G Bhanuprakash Reddy, deputy EO C Ramana and former chairman K Vapiraju were present.